

















Book._X42_ 

GojpglitN 0 . LA* *. 

CQPtfRlGJLT DEPOSIT/ 



























































































‘ 




. 

























































































JCittlc pilgrim at Slant foil’s. — frontispiece. 



Bessie was seated on the barn-floor, with all the little 
kittens in her lap. p. 21. 


The Little Pilgrim Series . 


Little Pilgrim 


At Aunt Lou's. 

'YKOsirS 

y A.*- 


: 'ooP yR,G ^r 

IjLoJIJMZM 

18T9. ,#*# 

PHILADELPHIA! 

AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, 

No. 1122 CHESTNUT STREET. 


New York : Nos. 8 and io Bible House, Astor Place. 
Chicago : 73 Randolph Street. 



Entered according to Act of Congress , in the year 1879, by the 
AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 




LITTLE PILGRIM AT AUNT LOU’S, 


I. 

TT was a long time after Christ- 
^ mas, and the snow and ice had 
all melted, and the trees were green 
again, and the flowers and birds had 
all come back. 

Summer was just beginning again ; 
and on the very day that she was 
five years old the little pilgrim start- 
ed on a long journey with papa and 
mamma and Aunt Lillie. 

They were going into the coun- 

5 


6 Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's. 

try to Aunt Lou's, to stay for a great 
many weeks — mamma and Aunt Lil- 
lie and Bessie ; and papa was going 
to take them there and stay one 
night, and then go home again, be- 
cause he had to attend to his busi- 
ness. 

Grandpapa was not going at all 
now, because he could not leave 
his church and his poor people; 
but by and by, he said, when the 
days and nights were both too hot 
for him, he would take a vacation 
like the school-children, and go to 
Aunt Lou’s for a month. 


Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lous. 7 

Rosy and Jane had promised to 
take good care of the house, and 
they both stood at the gate watch- 
ing the family off. 

At first the little pilgrim thought 
it very fine to go off in the steam- 
cars and watch the houses and trees 
fly past the windows, for this is what 
they seemed to do ; but the cars did 
the flying, while the houses and trees 
stayed just where they were before. 

There was not a happier little girl 
to be found that morning than Bes- 
sie. She had a beautiful little trunk 
with her that held all Blanche’s 


8 Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lous. 

clothes, and the key of the trunk 
was on a ribbon around her neck. 
Blanche, you know, was her best 
dolly- — the one her marnma gave her 
on her last birthday — and she had 
always taken great care of her, so 
that she was now almost as good 
as new. 

When mamma began to pack the 
trunks her little daughter brought 
nearly every plaything she had to 
be packed too, for she seemed to 
think that everything she had must 
go with her to Aunt Lou’s. But 
mamma told her that there was not 


Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's. 9 

room for all her toys, and that she 
must choose a few things to take 
with her, and leave the rest. 

Bessie was very much puzzled 
what to choose, and which of her 
dollies to leave behind. She was 
afraid that if she took Blanche, 
Sarah Jane would feel badly; and 
if she took Sarah Jane, Blanche 
would not like to be left behind. 

So she went to ask Aunt Lillie 
about it. 

“Auntie,” said she, “s’pose you 
had two little chillens, and your 
mamma would only let you have 


io Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's. 

one chillen to take away, would 
you choose Blanche or Sarah Jane?’' 

“ I think,” said Aunt Lillie, who 
looked very smiling, “ that I should 
have to take the child who needed 
me most.” 

“That’s Blanche,” said Bessie, who 
wanted to take her all the time, be- 
cause she was so much handsomer 
than Sarah Jane; “she’s the young- 
est, and I have to be careful of her 
clothes.” 

So, trying to explain it all to 
Sarah Jane why she was to be 
left at home, she began to get 


Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's. 1 1 

Blanche ready for the visit at Aunt 
Lou’s. 

When the little trunk came, with 
Blanche’s name painted on one end, 
Bessie was very much delighted ; 
and the tiny dresses and aprons 
and petticoats were packed in it 
very neatly. 

Miss Blanche had a new travel- 
ling suit that Aunt Lillie made for 
her. It was gray, trimmed with 
blue ; and there was a turban hat 
with a blue feather in it. Bessie 
said that Sarah Jane looked very 
cross when she saw this, but she 


12 Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's, 

told her that it was not right to 
be jealous of her sister. 

Papa’s eyes laughed when he 
asked his little girl if he should 
not get a check for Blanche’s trunk 
and have it taken away by the ex- 
pressman with the other baggage ; 
and Bessie thought she would like 
this very much, until Aunt Lillie said 
that it would not do, because the lit- 
tle trunk might get crushed under 
the heavy ones. 

When they went into the cars 
papa was carrying Blanche’s trunk 
in one hand, and holding Bessie by 


Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's, 13 

the other, and the little pilgrim her- 
self was carrying Blanche. 


II. 

TT was night when they got to 
^ Aunt Lou’s, and Bessie was fast 
asleep. She did not even wake up 
when she was being undressed, and 
she did not know where she was un- 
til next morning. 

When she woke the sun was 
shining right in her eyes, and she 
was not in her crib, nor in her little 


14 Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lous. 

blue room at all. There were fun- 
ny noises outside too; roosters were 
crowing, and she heard cows, and 
then she knew in a minute that this 

must be Aunt Lou’s. 

\ 

No one was in the room with 
her, for papa had to go off early in 
the cars, and mamma had gone 
down stairs to eat breakfast with 
him. 

Pretty soon Aunt Lillie came in 
and dressed her ; and by that time 
the little pilgrim was quite ready for 
her breakfast. 

How the little cousins hugged and 


Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's . 15 

kissed her when she came down 
stairs ! They were so very glad to 
see her, and they had been allowed 
to sit up the night before on pur- 
pose to welcome her, and had been 
very much disappointed to find that 
she was fast asleep. 

The oldest of these cousins was a 
boy — a very big boy, Bessie thought, 
for he was ten years old. His name 
was Jimmie, and he liked to read 
better than he liked to play, but 
he would play with them some- 
times. 

Nellie was a very nice cousin in- 


1 6 Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's. 

deed. She was eight years old, and 
she was always pleasant and smiling 
and ready to amuse the little ones. 

One of these little ones was Char- 
lie, who had another name, and I 
am sorry to say that this was “ Cry- 
Baby.” Charlie was four years old, 
and he cried when his face was 
washed, and cried when he tumbled 
down, and cried when he couldn’t 
have what he wanted. 

When he was not crying he smiled 
and looked like a very happy little 
boy ; and this was the way he looked 
now. 


Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's. 17 

Then there was Baby Alice, a dear 
little girl who had to be carried and 
who could not speak a word yet. 

Mr. and Mrs. Mason, who were 
Bessie’s Uncle Ralph and Aunt Lou, 
lived on a large farm, where they 
had plenty of people to help do 
the work ; and these people had 
houses of their own not very far 
from the large house in which Bes- 
sie’s cousins lived. 

There were a great many fields 
around the house, and woods, and 
a pretty little brook that seemed to 
be singing a song the whole time. 

2 


1 8 Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's. 

The place was called “Brook Farm;” 
and there were so many horses, and 
cows, and sheep, and pigs, and chick- 
ens that Bessie wondered if any one 
could count them. 

“ Eat your breakfast, dear,” said 
Aunt Lou when she saw that Bes- 
sie left her bread-and-milk to look 
at the pets her cousins were already 
bringing in to show her, for they had 
all had their breakfasts ; “ there will 
be plenty of time for all that after- 
ward.” 

But the little pilgrim could not 
stop long to eat. Charlie had just 


Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's. 19 

whispered, “Tree tittens — four, five, 
tree — tome and see 1” and away she 
flew. 

“ I expect my little girl to run wild 
now,” said mamma, smiling. 

“ It will do her a great deal of 
good,” replied Aunt Lou; “she is 
looking too pale, and I want to see 
her cheeks like roses before she 
leaves here.” 

In a few moments there was a 
great screaming and boo-hoo-ing 
from Charlie, who came running 
to the house crying as hard as he 
could. 


20 Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's. 

“ What is the matter now ?” asked 
his mamma, who did not seem to 
think there was much the matter. 

Then Charlie roared harder than 
ever, and held up a little fat hand to 
show a great scratch on it. Pussy 
had scratched him because he was 
taking her babies up by the tail. 

“ He is real naughty,” said Nellie, 
who had followed him ; “ he makes 
the little kittens squeal, and that is 
why Pussy scratches him.” 

Charlie fairly bellowed now, be- 
cause his scratch hurt him and be- 
cause he could not do as he liked 


Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's. 21 

with the kittens. He had been sick 
a great deal, and had had his own 
way too much. 

Aunt Lillie put a piece of thin 
plaster on the scratch, and then 
Charlie said, “All well now,” and 
ran back to the barn with his face 
full of smiles. His mamma thought 
he had been punished enough, for 
Pussy gave him a pretty hard scratch, 
and he promised to be very gentle 
with the kittens. 

Bessie was seated on the barn- 
floor with all the little kittens in 
her lap, and Mother Puss was purr- 


22 Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's . 

mg around her and not minding it 
at all. They were such pretty little 
things — white, with black tails, and 
they all had blue eyes ! They had 
just got their eyes open. 

“ Here is some milk for you, 
Pussy,” said Martha as she put a 
large dish of it down on the floor. 
Martha was the girl who took care 
of the milk and butter, that were 
kept in a little house half sunk in 
the ground. This was the dairy. 

Pussy did not like to leave her 
kittens long, even to get something 
to eat, and Martha often brought 


Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lous. 23 

her milk, so that she would not be 
hungry. 

“ Come with me,” said Martha to 
the children, “and I will show you 
some babies smaller than these kit- 
tens ; I found them yesterday.” 

The kittens were quickly put back 
into their straw nest in the manger, 
and the children followed Martha to 
see what she had to show them. 

She took them into the corn-crib, 
which was near the barn ; and where 
the corn was all kept with which 
the animals were fed. In a dark 
corner, right under a sloping beam, 


24 Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's. 

there was an old box, and in this 
box there was a funny sort of nest 
made of straw and rags. 

“Are they birds?” asked Nellie 
as she tiptoed up to it. 

“Birds!” repeated Jimmie, who 
was just behind her: “don’t you 
know better than that? They are 
m ^ ce — white mice, I shouldn’t won- 
der.” 

“ No, they ain’t,” said Bessie, who 
was stretching her little neck to get 
a good view of them; “they’re all 
pink. I see ’em !” 

She did not know why she was 


Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's. 25 

laughed at, for they certainly were 
pink — very pink indeed, and very 
little. 

“ La, child !” said Martha, laugh- 
ing too, “ that ain’t the color they’re 
going to be. They’re pink because 
they haven’t got any fur yet, only 
their skins. I guess, though, that 
they’ll be just mouse-color. But 
ain’t they cunning?” 

“ Me want one,” said Charlie, “ to 
play with.” 

And when they told him that he 
could not take any of Mrs. Mouse’s 
children, as she had only gone out 


26 Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou s. 

for a little while, he, as usual, began 
to cry. 

“Go ahead, Cry-Baby !” said Jim- 
mie ; and Charlie did go ahead. 

But something dreadful happened 
just then. 

No one knew that Mrs. Puss had 
just followed them in to see what 
was going on ; and as soon as she 
caught sight of the nest with three 
little mice in it, she knew what they 
were in a minute. She made one 
jump and gobbled them up ; every 
little mouse was gone, and Puss sat 
licking her chops and feeling that 


Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's. 27 

she had made a very good break- 
fast. 

“Well, I never!” said Martha, al- 
most out of breath with surprise. 

“You horrid cat!” said Nellie, just 
ready to cry for the fate of the poor 
little mice. 

Bessie quite cried, it seemed so 
dreadful ; and as to Charlie, his 
roars were heard at the house. 

Aunt Lou and Bessie’s mamma 
and Aunt Lillie all came running 
out to see what was the matter. 
Had Charlie’s eyes been scratched 
out now ? 


28 Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's. 

“ Oh, mamma !” sobbed Bessie as 
she buried her head in her mother’s 
dress, “that wicked cat has eaten up 
the little mouses !” 

“ Do have her killed, mamma,” 
said Nellie ; “ she is too bad to 
live.” 

Every little face looked angry and 
excited, and Charlie kept on scream- 
ing. 

Then Martha told about the little 
nest with the three pink mice in it, 
and how Puss had eaten them for 
her breakfast. 

“ I wish the cow or something big 


Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's. 29 

would eat her kittens,” said Jimmie; 
“see how she would like that!” 

“Children,” said Aunt Lou, “you 
are all wrong, and Puss is not wick- 
ed at all. She was born to eat mice 
— that is her business; and I am sure 
that papa will be very much obliged 
to her for clearing a nest of these 
destructive little creatures out of his 
corn-crib.” 

“ But they were so cunning!” sob- 
bed the children. 

“All young animals are ‘cun- 
ning,’” replied mamma with a smile, 
“but we should not be very com- 


30 Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's . 

fortable unless some of them were 
killed. How would it do to have 
the house full of mice?” 

That did not sound very pleasant, 
and they began to see that Pussy 
was not so bad, after all. 

“Besides,” said Jimmie, remember- 
ing what he had read, “ we eat cows 
and sheep and pigs and chickens 
ourselves, so we are just as bad as 
Pussy.” 

“ Come with me, Charlie,” said 
Aunt Lillie, “and I will show you a 
picture-book which I am sure you 
will like.” 


Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's. 31 

Charlie stopped crying at this 
promise, and went with his auntie, 
of whom he was very fond. 

But he and Bessie had a quarrel 
that same day about this very auntie, 
whom Bessie always claimed as her 
own property. She didn’t see how 
she could belong to any one else; 
and she said to Charlie, “ She isn’t 
your aunt Lillie ; she’s mine.” 

“Tain’t!” replied Charlie, begin- 
ning to blubber; “it’s mine auntie 
Lillie.” 

The little pilgrim was so angry 
at this that she started to run and 


32 Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou s. 

ask Aunt Lillie if she wasn’t her 
very own auntie and no one else’s. 
But she went too fast, and before 
she knew it she was down on her 
nose. 

Auntie happened to come along 
just in time to pick the little pil- 
grim up and comfort her. Then 
she told the two little cousins how 
wrong it was to quarrel, and that 
she was auntie to both of them. 

So the children kissed and made 
it up, and Charlie promised that 
he would try not to be such a cry- 
baby. 


Little Pilgrim at A 7 int Lou s. 33 


III. 



HERE were so many things to 


A see at Aunt Lou’s that the lit- 
tle pilgrim lived out of doors nearly 
all the time. 

“You must come and see my 
baby-house,” said Nelly; and Bes- 
sie wondered if it would be pret- 
tier than hers. 

It was in a very funny place, for 
Nellie took her down by the brook ; 
and there was a hollow in a great 
tree that had a little table in it, and 
two or three rag dollies sitting by 


3 


34 Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's. 

the table, and cups and saucers on 
it ; but the cups and saucers were 
not like any that Bessie had ever 
seen before. They were made of 
acorns, which Jimmie had cut out 
for her,' and the cups looked like 
little thimble^* Fresh grass was 
spread dowrt for a carpet, and Nel- 
lie told her little cousin that this 
was her summer-house. 

“You see,” she said, “that I can 
leave my dollies and all out in* the 
rain, and it don’t hurt them a bit. 
I have nicer ones for in-doors, but 
I love these just as well, because 


Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's. 35 

I can do what I like with them. — 
Hold up your head, Polly, but don’t 
stare so at the company ; haven’t 
you any manners ?” 

Bessie looked all around for the 
little girl, but she did not see any. 
Nellie burst out laughing. 

“ There she is,” said she, pointing 
to the largest rag doll ; “ I always 
talk to her as if she was alive. It’s 
real fun. This is her sister, Martha 
Jane. She has fits.” 

“ My rag doll is Sarah Jane,” said 
the little pilgrim. “ What does Mar- 
tha Jane have fits for?” 


36 Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou' s. 

“’Cos she likes ’em,” replied Nel- 
lie ; “ she’d rather have fits than any- 
thing else. But Polly likes measles 
best.” 

This seemed very strange to Bes- 
sie, but Nellie was so much older 
that she thought she must know. 

When they got tired of playing 
with the baby-house they took off 
their shoes and stockings and pad- 
died in the brook. The water was 
delightfully cool, and Bessie knew 
now why the cows like to stand in 
the water in warm weather. 

There were stepping-stones in the 


Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's. 37 

brook, and the two little girls cross- 
ed from one to another, and paddled 
about as much as they liked. 

“ It is nicer here than it is at our 
house,” said Bessie ; “ we haven’t 
got any brook, nor any barn nor 
corn-crib ; and I’m going to ask my 
papa to come here to live.” 

“ Then we could visit every day,” 
said Nellie; “you could come to 
see me, and I could go to see 
you.” 

But when Bessie got back to her 
home again she forgot all about go- 
ing to live at Brook Farm, and was 


38 Liitle Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's . 

just as well satisfied with grandpa- 
pa’s house as ever. 

When they were tired of the 
brook they put on their shoes and 
stockings again and went to look 
at Martha’s dairy. Martha had said 
that they might come and see her 
make butter. 

Bessie liked going into funny little 
houses, and it was so nice and cool 
in the dairy. Everything was so 
clean and shining, and the tin milk- 
pans were bright enough for look- 
ing-glasses. Some of them were 
full of milk with rich cream on top, 


Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's. 39 

and the little visitor was allowed 
to skim some of this off in a pitcher 
for dinner. She liked to do it very 
much. 

Martha was churning, and she 
said that the butter had ’most come. 
She kept looking into the churn 
every few minutes ; and soon she 
took out large yellow lumps and 
put them on a flat dish. 

These lumps were butter, and 
she washed them very clean in cold 
water, and then worked them into 
shape. She made them into neat- 
looking pats, and stamped them 


40 Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's, 

with different figures. She let Bes- 
sie stamp one with a wooden rose, 
and it looked very pretty. 

Then Martha gave each of the 
children a drink of rich buttermilk 
from the churn, and they thanked 
her and went to the house, for it 
was nearly dinner-time. When they 
were not far from the kitchen-door 
they knew that Charlie was coming, 
there was such a terrible screaming. 

“Oh, he’s hurt!” said Bessie, look- 
ing frightened ; “ he’s so little, you 
know.” 

“Pooh!” said Nellie; “I guess he. 


Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's . 41 

isn’t hurt; he always screams for 
nothing.” 

It happened that Charlie was hurt 
this time — pretty badly hurt too, for 
a little boy. But it was some time 
before his mamma knew it, for, as 
Nellie said, he always screamed for 
nothing, and if Aunt Lou had run 
to him every time that he screamed 
she would not have been able to do 
much else. 

This is the story he told his mam- 
ma between his sobs when he had 
found her: “Great wicked bumble- 
bee bited Charlie in his mouf!” 


42 Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's. 

“ Let me see the mouth,” said 
mamma. 

Charlie roared afresh with pain, 
and showed his lip, badly swollen 
on the inside. He certainly had 
been stung, but mamma did not 
see how the bee could have got at 
him there. When she asked her lit- 
tle boy he hung his head and said 
that “ Charlie bited a little bite out 
of a napple, and then the ugly bee 
bited his mouf and then his mam- 
ma knew that he had disobeyed her 
and gone into the orchard to eat the 
apples that had fallen on the ground. 


Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's. 43 

Mamma made her little boy as 
comfortable as she could, and then 
she talked to him about his naught- 
iness until Charlie felt very sorry and 
promised not to disobey again. 


IV. 

TT was a rainy day, and the chil- 
^ dren could not go out to play 
by the brook or in the fields. Bes- 
sie’s mamma said that she knew 
papa would like to get a letter 
from his little daughter, so the lit- 


44 Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's. 

tie daughter sat down to print one. 
This was all that Bessie could do 
in the way of writing, but she did it 
pretty well. This is what she wrote, 
with some help from mamma : 

“ Dear Papa : 

“I want to see you very much, for 
you are the only papa I have got, 
and a great deal nicer than the pigs 
and chickens and cows. I like them 
very much too. The pigs are funny. 
Charlie tumbled in one day, and the 
pigs ran into a corner. Aunt Lou 
said they were frightened at Char- 


Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's . 45 

lie’s screams. He screams when he 
isn’t hurt. I don’t. Aunt Lou says 
I am a brave little girl, because I fall 
down and don’t cry. 

“From you dear little daughter, 

“ Bessie.” 

Papa was very much pleased in- 
deed with this letter. 

Then the little pilgrim wrote one 
to grandpapa, and grandpapa wrote 
an answer to it, and came and 
brought it himself. 

Every one was so glad to see him ! 
and the children soon found that 


46 Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's. 

they had another playmate. Jimmie 
was named after grandpa, and he 
thought that he ought to have him 
all to himself, but the little girls 
would not consent to this. Charlie 
wanted a “slice of grandpa” too; 
and he had to go all over the farm 
to see all the pets and the brook and 
the baby-house. Aunt Lou said that 
he was not free from the children 
except when he was asleep, but 
grandpapa declared that he did not 
want to be free from them. 

He said that Bessie had grown 
half a head; and she certainly look- 


Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's. 47 

ed like a very chubby, rosy little girl 
since she had come to stay at Aunt 
Lou’s. She drank so much milk and 
ran about so much in the open air 
that she was getting quite strong. 

Bessie scarcely thought of Blanche 
and the little trunk, there were so 
many other things to do. But Nel- 
lie said she was a beautiful doll, and 
that it must be so nice to have a real 
trunk to put her clothes in ; she wish- 
ed that her papa would get her one 
when he went to the city. 

Our little pilgrim loved dearly to 
hunt for eggs. 


48 Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's. 

Once she saw a little bird’s nest 
with four pretty eggs in it, but she 
knew that she must not touch these, 
for she did not want to make the 
little bird-mother unhappy. 

Every one loved Bessie, and the 
children did not like to think of her 
ever leaving them. But the time 
came when she had to go away from 
Brook Farm; and, having said good- 
bye even to the cows and chickens, 
the little pilgrim went off again in 
the cars on her journey home. 










t 
























